If you asked me how to become a better marketer today, there are five key skills I would recommend you hone and master.
(Doctor Phil taught me one of them.)
And they are the five skills that have helped firms go from making seven figures a year to breaking into the 8-figure mark.
Before you tune out, know that they are not tactics or strategies, and you certainly don’t have to learn some new platform.
These skills are all about understanding humans at their core and how that translates into marketing.
5 Marketing Skills Every Accounting Firm Should Master
1. Be Magnetic
Some of the best marketers and successful firm owners have one thing in common: they’re magnetic.
I witnessed this years ago when I was at a Chiefs game with a very successful client in Miami. His name is Julio. He has a very successful firm that he’s grown through the ability to be magnetic.
Everyone there wanted to not just get to know him, but learn from him. They were inspired and motivated by him. Ultimately, this was how he grew a firm to tens of millions of dollars a year.
Now, if you’re wondering, “How can I become more magnetic?” It’s actually a lot easier than you think.
Start by seeing how people perceive you.
You can do this by taking a video of yourself talking for about a minute. Then, I want you to do two things:
- Listen to the video. Don’t watch it. Just listen. Ask yourself: Was I engaging? Was I pulling people in? Did I have a range in my voice? Did I use my tone to emphasize certain words? Think about what the experience was like listening to yourself.
- Watch the video on mute. Pay attention to how you communicate. Were you engaging? Did you have different times where you really leaned in? Did you use your hands to express yourself at times? What was the experience like?
Now, I want you to do this exercise every single day. Over time, you’ll learn how to use your words and your body language to become more magnetic.
2. Study Human Psychology
Human psychology plays a huge role in marketing.
The goal is to understand your buyers and what makes them tick.
For example, this means not just thinking about how to get more traffic to a page, but understanding what actually makes someone visit a landing page.
What problems are they having? What’s their thought process? What makes someone go, “Okay, I have this problem, but I actually want to solve it.”?
What makes someone really take action?
This is all part of human psychology. Knowing why people do what they do and why they feel the way they do is the root of all marketing.
Now, you don’t have to go back to school to study psychology for this to work for your firm. Books are a great place to start. Audible is a smart option if you’re short on time. You can listen at 2x or 2.5x speed while you’re driving, exercising or going for a walk.
I want you to pick one book to focus on this month that will help you better understand the psychology aspect of marketing. Read it, study it and I promise that you’ll be a better marketer as a result.
3. Study Great Interviewers
Now, I want to take you back to the year 2000 for this one. I just got home from school, and I’m sitting down to watch Oprah or, if I was lucky, Dr. Phil. Loved them both.
One thing they had in common is that they were both really great at getting their guests to open up to them, and share their stories and journeys.
They were really great interviewers. They were present and knew how to ask great questions. They truly listened to their guests and helped them understand what they had been through or were going through on a deeper level.
And that’s the key here.
As marketers, we have to do the same. First, we have to help people understand where they’re at and where they want to go. Then, we paint the picture of how they can get there.
In order to do this, we need to understand our audience. Here’s where it pays to study great interviewers.
The goal is to understand how they:
- Ask questions
- Inspire people
- Get people to feel comfortable enough to open up
Use what you learn and apply it to your marketing. Whenever you read copy on a landing page, create a social media post, script a video, you can keep everything you’ve learned in mind.
My homework for you is to find an interviewer or an interview that you really like. When you watch it, pay attention to and learn from the interviewer.
Take notes on how they ask questions, how they lead people through the journey and what transformation is like during the interview.
4. Study How Communities Form
Here’s a marketing skill I don’t see anyone talking about. Learn how communities form. Think Nike or Apple.
People want to be a part of something with other people who share the same values, aspirations and dreams.
And when people associate with a brand and become part of that community, they think, “Hey, this says something about me.”
When brands become a part of a person’s identity, that’s a powerful thing.
So, I want you to start thinking about yourself as a brand. Think about how you can create a community around shared values where people say, “Yes, sign me up. I want to be part of that. I want to be associated with them”
To help you get on the right track, study one devoted community. You can pick any one of the ones I just mentioned or one that resonates with you.
Ask:
- What did they do to create their community?
- What are they doing to sustain that community?
Then, think about how you can reverse engineer their strategies to start building your own community.
5. Study Status and Identity
Whenever someone makes a purchase, it says something about them and what they represent. I’m not just talking about luxury cars or watches (although they definitely play into it). It could actually be the opposite.
I’ve seen this personally. There are extremely wealthy people who drive minivans. Why? Because they don’t want to be associated with wealth. That’s their decision and choice.
But if you want to be a firm that charges premium rates, I want you to think about:
How can you associate yourself with a status that attracts someone wanting the highest level of service? That prides themselves on working with someone of that level?
How can you represent that?
This can look like a lot of different things, but keep in mind that every single thing you do creates that status.
If you want to be seen as high status, think about how you operate not just your business but your personal life.
Do you show up on time and ready? Do you show up well-groomed? All of these things feed into status.
So, start looking at different brands that have the status you want to be. Study them and the people that make them up. What traits do they have?
Another thing to think about is who you associate with. This also plays into status and identity.
Let’s say that you associate with a law firm that prides itself on being the cheapest. They’re the kind of mid or low-tier firm that serves everyone. Their status transfers over to you.
Be mindful of this when you work with clients.
Final Thoughts
These five things will make you a better marketer, but I know that they take a lot of time to master or work through and understand.
So, if you do anything this week, I want you to pick just one of them. Start focusing on it. Maybe you want to work on becoming more magnetic or a better interviewer. Just one of those is going to move the needle forward in your business.
Over time, you can master all five.
And as the marketing world continues to be automated, these skills will be even more valuable. Why? Because they can’t be replicated with AI.
